Voxel based morphometry (VBM) is typically used for whole brain comparisons of grey or white matter density or concentration between groups of subjects. VBM is therefore a measure of structural or anatomical differences between e.g. a clinical and a healthy control group. VBM allows for the analysis of tissue concentration on a voxel-by-voxel basis. In this respect VBM differs from other measures of morphometry that e.g. use a region-of-interest (ROI) approach. VBM data are normalized and mapped to a brain template which reduces the impact of individual differences in brain anatomy. VBM measures have shown differences in grey matter concentration in temporal and frontal lobes in patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls.

The figure shows significant reduction in grey matter concentration (orange areas) in the left temporal lobe and basal ganglia in a group of patients with schizophrenia (Bergen fMRI Group, Neckelmann et al., INJ, 2006).